


Worlds Collide

by faithinthepoor



Series: Red Queen - OUaT [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-12 22:40:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3357920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithinthepoor/pseuds/faithinthepoor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Red Queen Valentine's Day Challenge and in keeping with my Red Queen tradition this pretty much fails to hit any of the prompts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worlds Collide

**Author's Note:**

> Follows my fic [Worlds of Difference](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2521427)

As endings go, this is completely unacceptable. Storybroke has made these people weak – apparently no one knows how to properly wield a pitchfork anymore. It is clear they lack the fortitude to appropriately execute a coup but the dimwits and their followers have hurt her nonetheless. Holding her in this cell is demeaning; she was a queen, she was monster, she was the stuff of nightmares, at the very least she should be burning at a stake. If she possessed her magic she would light the pyre herself.

She moves and feels the blanket scratch against the skin of her hand and for the umpteenth time she reminds herself that she will not be removing her jacket during her incarceration. Her captors probably believe they are compassionate in sparing her life but she would gladly embrace death to avoid the accommodations and the company.

Speaking of company, Snow’s spawn has been staring at her for some time. Regina does not give her the satisfaction of letting her know that it irritates her but she swears that if she ever gets out from behind these bars she will poke the blonde’s eyes out. Deciding on the appropriate implement with which to blind the sheriff proves to be an enjoyable enough distraction and it passes the time until the changing of the guard.

The girl comes in to take over from Swan and suddenly things are looking up. Emma is clearly her mother’s daughter though because she argues that she needs to stay, that it is too dangerous for Ruby to be left alone with the prisoner. The girl is tenacious but her assertion that she is capable of babysitting a defenceless woman who is locked in a cell falls on deaf ears. Thankfully tenacity is not the girl’s only skill and a basket of deep fried bread goods succeeds where her words had failed. 

When Miss Swan finally departs, a bear claw hanging from her mouth as she goes, the girl perches herself on the edge of the sheriff’s desk and fires Regina a look that makes her believe that being a powerless prisoner may not be quite as bad as she once thought. Regina may have lost her position and her magic but that doesn’t mean that she is about to let the girl think that she has the upper hand. 

“Don’t you think a basket of goodies is a little clichéd, dear? I mean that was particularly straight out of the pages of Henry’s book.”

“I don’t know, it’s not as though I’ve spent a lot of time looking at your child’s book,” Red leans back using her hands to keep herslef balanced as she slowly crosses her legs, “but it appears that it was effective.”

Regina wills herself not to look at the legs, or at the skirt that is failing to cover them, as she squeezes hands that ache to release the power she should possess into tight fists. “So now that you’ve managed to remove the _saviour_ ,” she spits the word out with the violence she’d like to be able to apply to said saviour and her mother, “what should we do with our time?” Regina has never played coy with the girl, it’s not what they do, but this is a new life. This is a new world.

“I have an idea or two.”

“Is that so?” she asks with a raise of her eyebrow.

“For a start I’m not wearing anything under this,” Red tugs at the hem of her skirt. Regina can feel the girl’s eyes burning into her but her own gaze can’t be diverted from Red’s legs as they are uncrossed and then crossed again.

Regina had planned to be calm and in control. She had planned to remain firmly on the bed and make Red work for her attention. She certainly hadn’t planned to find herself clutching the bars of the cell in her desperation to get to the girl. 

Red must be able to see Regina’s need but she is cautious in her approach. The girl reaches out and strokes Regina’s hand, “I shouldn’t have left you,” Red whispers with her head bowed.

“I asked you to go.” She reminds the girl.

“I shouldn’t have listened. I shouldn’t have snuck out the back of your house like this is something I’m ashamed off,” Red traces a finger down the side of Regina’s face, “I should have stayed by your side.”

Red’s insolence both annoys and excites Regina. It always has and it’s possible that it always will. “If you’d done that you’d be sharing this cell with me.”

“Well,” the girl draws out the word as her eyes darken, “that would certainly make what I have in mind a whole lot easier.”

“That’s true,” she reluctantly agrees, “but in that scenario we wouldn’t be alone.”

“Regina, it’s been twenty-eight years, the whole town can watch for all I care.”

She knows Red doesn’t mean it, for all of her bravado the girl values her privacy, but she can’t deny that the thought has some appeal. It is, however, not as important as having a future with Red. “Call me selfish but I’d rather keep you to myself.”

Red’s face lights up and she places her hands on Regina’s hips. The bars make that position awkward but there is no denying the sense of rightness that accompanies that move. “Really?”

“Of course.”

“I was worried I may have pushed things too far when I said I wanted to be a family.”

She laughs and if it’s possible Red’s smile grows. “My darling we should have been a family long ago.”

“Yes, well, you were a little busy coming up with a way to curse us all.”

Fingers have begun to kneed into her sides making rational thought difficult, “It wasn’t my finest moment.”

“I’ve already forgiven you.”

“Not for everything,” she says and then holds her breath.

“We’ve been over this. I have my heart. It’s all good Regina.” Red attempts to kiss her but Regina pulls back. This can’t happen, not like this.

“Wait!” she exclaims. “There is something you need to know.”

“I know all I need to know.”

“You don’t! During the curse, I wasn’t…. well I wasn’t celibate.”

“I’m aware,” Red says dismissively.

“You are?”

“I don’t know how this curse of yours was meant to work. You may have dressed me like I was always open for business but Ruby wasn’t interested in anyone in this town other than its mayor.”

“Is that so?” Her heart shouldn’t quicken at those words, Ruby wasn’t even real.

“She was terrified of her but she was definitely attracted to her. Attracted enough to be aware of her movements with the former sheriff.”

“I don’t know what to say to that.” There is nothing she can do to make this right.

“You killed him, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” she admits.

“May I ask why?”

“Snow’s baby grew up and came to destroy my curse.”

“I got the sense he was interested in Emma.”

“Yeah, it seems he was.”

“I see,” Red’s fingers have stilled and her lips are pressed into a firm line.

“It’s not want you think.”

“You weren’t jealous?”

“Of course not. The Huntsman meant no more to me here that he did in our world.”

“Then why be with him?”

“I was lonely. This world I made, this world I lost you for, turned out to be a prison for me. He was a form of respite I guess but I promise you it meant nothing.”

“They why do it? Why use him like that? I was here, you could have had me.”

“You were not you, Red, and as monstrous as I may be I promised I would never take you without your consent.”

“Ruby would have happily consented, trust me.”

“I won’t pretend that I never thought about it. When I first saw you dressed liked this it was all I could think about but I couldn’t do that to you.”

Red has pulled her closer and her hips are pinned uncomfortably against the bars of the cell. “If you didn’t care about him, why did you kill him?”

“Because of you.”

“ _This_ particular murder is not on me.”

“Because the curse was going to break and I didn’t know how you’d take it. I didn’t want him around as reminder of the fact that I had failed you and so I crushed his heart.”

One of Red’s hands moves to stroke Regina’s hair, “You didn’t fail me. As you said, I wasn’t me.”

“But I should have waited.”

“I wouldn’t want you not to live your life. I’d never want that for you.”

“In all that time, other than Henry, I never cared for anyone else.”

“Good.” Red says and there is no shame to the edge of possessiveness in her voice.

“So, you don’t hate me?”

“I’m still here and I still have my heart,” Red says with a small smile.

“I’m forgiven then?”

“Oh I am going to use this against you for years to come. I plan to win many arguments with it but I’m not angry enough to let it deter me from the plans I had when I walked in here.”

“I certainly wouldn’t want to keep you from those,” she says in a voice that has dropped of its own accord.

Red places a tender kiss to her lips and she wonders what she ever did rate to deserve this girl. She wants to show Red what she means to her but deepening the kiss proves difficult as her nose hits metal and it’s impossible to get the angle quite right. Regina reluctantly abandons Red’s lips and positions her hands so that she is able to unbutton Red’s shirt. 

Her lips graze what skin they are able to reach but her hands prove much more successful explorers and they push aside Red’s bra before busying themselves with marking the territory of her nipples. Red’s hands weave into Regina’s hair as she attempts to push her lower. “I don’t know how successful this is going to be,” she apologies as she falls to her knees before the girl she wants to worship.

“Just do what you can,” Red directs in a husky tone as she presses herself against the bars.

She runs her hands up the back of the girl’s legs and feels herself gulp when it turns out that Red was not lying about her lack of underwear. Regina pulls Red’s skirt up to get a better view of her target and then places a kiss to her pubic bone. Red widens her stance to give Regina better access but the area that she can reach with her mouth remains limited. She groans in frustration against Red’s skin and Red bucks her hips towards her, crashing them against the barrier between them.

“Shit, ow,” she hears Red cry.

“Do you want me to stop?”

“Fuck no.”

She smiles and plants kisses to a small patch of skin on Red’s abdomen as she creeps a hand up Red’s inner thigh. Her hand continues up and across until it finds silky folds. Her fingers slide through wetness as her thumb searches for a bundle of nerves and need. As her nail strokes Red’s clitoris, provoking a hiss of ecstatic pain, Regina enters her. 

Red’s hips attempt to undulate but with the bars in the way she is unable to find a rhythm. She pulls at Regina’s hair clearly frustrated about having to relinquish control to her. Regina uses her free hand to extricate Red’s fingers from the hair on one side of her head and then draws a finger into her mouth. She sucks on the digit as her own fingers continue to dive and stroke. 

Regina can hear Red’s laboured breathing and knows that she is close to the edge. She curls her fingers, taping against Red’s walls with each thrust and releasing a tirade of curses from the girl. She increases her pace and presses more firmly on Red’s clitoris and in response Red’s body grabs at the fingers until Red is shuddering around her and calling out her name in thanks.  
Red’s calls are accompanied by a large clattering sound and it takes Regina a while to realise that the sound didn’t come from them and that they are not alone. Snow stands in the doorway, looking paler than her name, and seething in anger.

Regina stands and looks to Red to find her frozen with her eyes wide in fear. Out of respect for the girl’s modesty Regina pulls her skirt down, closes her shirt, and then strokes her hair comfortingly.

“What have you done to her?” Snow demands.

“I would have thought that was obvious, dear,” she replies, enjoying this moment far more than she really should.

“You’ve bewitched her somehow.”

“I don’t have my magic. If I did you’d be the first to know.” Even without her powers her words carry threat and menace.

Snow’s brow wrinkles in confusion and anger. “Then you must have done it long ago,” she pauses seeming uncomfortable with what she is about to say, “back when you had power. Back in the Enchanted Forest.”

“You’re right,” Red manages to find her voice, “she did bewitch me there.”

Her enemy stands tall, once again certain of the world, certain of her righteousness, “We will find a way to undo this,” she promises Red.

“There is nothing to undo,” Red tells Snow with a shake of her head, “she didn’t use magic or tricks. She was just her.”

“You talk like……like……like,” Snow is flustered, her sense of certainty dashed once again.

“Like I love her?” Snow nods in reply. “That’s because I do,” Red reaches back into the cell, grabbing Regina’s hands and linking their fingers together, “I have for a long, long time.”

“How could you?” Snow is aghast and Regina wants to revel in her pain, to twist the knife until Snow begs for mercy and then twist some more, but Red’s breathing has become shallow and the hand that holds hers twitches nervously and so she stays silent for the girl’s sake.

“I couldn’t not. You might as well ask me how I could stop the sun rising, the answer would the same, I can’t do the impossible.”

Regina forgets her vow of silence as she whispers, “You think it’s impossible not to love me?”

“Quiet you,” Red says with affection and then draws their hands up so see can kiss Regina knuckles.

The display of affection appears to have shocked Snow more than their earlier compromising position did. Her eyes are wide and her mouth opens and closes around words that she cannot form. Eventually she manages to hiss, “But she’s a monster.”

“Yes,” Red agrees calmly, “and so am I.”

“It’s _not_ the same,” Snow insists.

“I guess not. I’ve always been a monster, I was born this way, Regina is what people made her.”

“And you what? You think you can change what she is by loving her.”

Regina’s heart stops. This is something that had not occurred to her and if it’s the truth then Red will fail because whatever else she may be, Regina is irredeemable. “No,” Red says slowly, “I don’t love a possibility or a potential. I love her and I hope she loves me in the same way.”

Her heart pounds back to life and Regina is able to breathe again. She squeezes Red’s hand as a confirmation, as a promise. Yet again Snow steals their moment of tenderness because everything has always been about what that selfish little girl wants, “But we love you Ruby. _I_ love you.”

“And because I was afraid of losing that I made a lot of mistakes that hurt a lot of people and we all ended up here.”

“You talk like you cast the curse,” Snow shakes her head in disbelief.

“In a way I think I did.”

“See,” Snow points an angry finger at them both, “she does have you bewitched, there’s no way you would think that if you were in your right mind.”

“I didn’t cast it directly but I suspect I played a large role in Regina doing what she did.”

“You can’t possibly believe that,” Snow’s eyes are pleading.

“It wasn’t Red’s fault,” Regina says firmly.

Snow relaxes visibly and Regina vows to cut out her own tongue before ever saying anything comforting to her again. “I think it kinda was,” Red says sheepishly as she turns to face Regina. “If I hadn’t have been afraid things might have gone differently.”

“What were you afraid of?” Regina asks softly.

“Losing you,” Red tells her as she gently strokes her cheek, “and losing you,” she turns her head to look at Snow. “I wanted everything but I didn’t know how to make that happen and because of that,” her eyes lock on Regina’s begging for absolution, “I made you unhappy.”

“What made me unhappy was the situation Red, it wasn’t you.”

“But I was the one causing the situation. I could have just chosen you and then there would never have been a need for the curse but I didn’t do that and so you suffered.”

“We both suffered,” Regina says without judgement. “In that world it was an impossible choice.”

“You’re not an impossible choice. You’re who I want.”

“But in the Enchanted Forest that choice would have meant war. That’s not a burden I could have ever asked you to bear.”

“And now?” Snow asks quietly.

“What?”

“We aren’t in the Enchanted Forest anymore, Ruby, what do you choose now?”

“I still want everything,” the girl admits. Snow seems to take this as a point in her favour as she looks a little less devastated. “But make no mistake, if you ask me to choose between the two of you, I pick Regina.”

It’s ridiculous how much her heart soars at those words. It’s ridiculous how much she loves the wolf girl. “Thank you,” she says in a way unbefitting of a queen.

Red looks at her likes she is an idiot, “Of course I choose you,” she says with a winsome smile before her eyes turn serious. The girl faces Snow again. “You will do what you must do but remember it’s not just Regina’s fate you hold in your hands, it’s mine.”

Snow takes a step back as though the words have had a physical impact, “I need to make a call,” she says as she exits the room.

Red sits down on the floor next to her cell and reaches for Regina’s hand encouraging her to join her, “I don’t think they will let me guard you again,” she grumbles.

“I think not,” she agrees. “Maybe we should make the most the most of this opportunity then,” Regina says lasciviously. 

“Take things seriously,” Red admonishes her.

“Oh I am. Believe me.”

The girl smacks at Regina’s leg before joining their hands once again, “Who do you think she’s calling?”

“Her lesser half I assume. He’ll probably gather the lynch mob back up.”

“You don’t sound all that worried

“No. No I guess I’m not.” She is sitting on the cold, dirty floor of a jail cell. She is beaten and captured, she is without power or recourse, and yet as she holds Red’s hand, for the first time ever she truly feels victorious.


End file.
